After two Americans are killed while escaping from a German P.O.W. camp in World War II, the barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer.
It's a dreary Christmas 1944 for the American POWs in Stalag 17. For the men in Barracks 4, all sergeants, have to deal with a grave problem - there seems to be a security leak. The Germans always seem to be forewarned about escapes and in the most recent attempt the two men, Manfredi and Johnson, walked straight into a trap and were killed. For some in Barracks 4, especially the loud-mouthed Duke, the leaker is obvious: J.J. Sefton, a wheeler-dealer who doesn't hesitate to trade with the guards and who has acquired goods and privileges that no other prisoner seems to have. Sefton denies giving the Germans any information and makes it quite clear that he has no intention of ever trying to escape. He plans to ride out the war in what little comfort he can arrange, but it doesn't extend to spying for the Germans. As tensions mount and mob mentality takes root, it becomes obvious Sefton will have to find the real German agent in their midst, which he finally does.—garykmcd
U.S. Army Sgt. Clarence Cook, nicknamed Cookie, remembers back to late 1944, when he was a POW in Stalag 17, in barrack number 4 along with several other US army sergeants, and the one major problem at that time of what everyone in the barrack believed was a traitor among their ranks. Everyone in the barrack partook in most of the communal activities, such as trying to cause grief for their German captors - for example, in hatching escape plans - and trying to catch glimpses of the Russian female POWs at the adjoining camp, everyone that is except for Sgt. J.J. Sefton. The very cynical Sefton, with Cookie as his paid help, only looked out for himself. He ran a gambling ring and sold homemade alcohol made from potato scraps among other schemes, and got rich on what passed for currency on the inside, namely goods within Red Cross packages, primarily cigarettes, which he would in turn trade with the Germans for other luxuries. Seemingly no means of "earning cigarettes" was too low for him. But several incidents occurred during this period which made it seem like the camp officials, namely the smug Commandant Oberst von Scherbach, and the barrack staff sergeant, J.S. Schultz, seemed to know their every move, especially those which may have involved escape plans - none of which were ever successful - or Allied efforts within the bigger picture of the war, leading to the notion there must be a traitor inside. Sefton didn't really seem to care until HE was implicated as that traitor in a situation involving actions by US Army Lt. James Dunbar, who was housed temporarily at the stalag. Sefton then took it upon himself to identify the traitor, if for no other reason than to save himself from his increasingly enraged fellow inmates.—Huggo
One night in 1944 in a German POW camp housing American airmen, two prisoners try to escape the compound and are quickly discovered and shot dead. Among the remaining men, suspicion grows that one of their own is a spy for the Germans. All eyes fall on Sgt. Sefton who everybody knows frequently makes exchanges with German guards for small luxuries. To protect himself from a mob of his enraged fellow inmates, Sgt. Sefton resolves to find the true traitor within their midst.—Jwelch5742
The American Clarence Harvey Cook, known as Cookie, recounts his memories of a German prisoner of war camp: 1944, somewhere on the Danube. There are 40,000 prisoners of war in the "Stalag 17" camp - Russians, Poles, Czechs and 630 Americans. The latter are all non-commissioned officers of the Luftwaffe and are tyrannized by the strict and cruel camp leader Colonel von Scherbach. One week before Christmas, the American barracks where Cookie lives plans and organizes an escape attempt by two men. But the meticulously planned endeavor ends fatally for them. When the two bodies lie in the mud during roll call the next morning, the barrack residents begin to wonder how the Nazis can always know about their well-guarded plans ... They suspect an informer among them. Suspicion quickly falls on J.J. Sefton, who had bet on the escape failing. He has long been viewed with skepticism by the others for his dealings with the German guards and his egotism. The mistrust culminates in a violent brawl that disfigures Sefton. His only way out of this hell is to expose the snitch himself, because it is not him. When Lieutenant Dunbar is brought into the barracks as a new recruit and confides to his compatriots that he blew up a German explosives train on the way, this secret also ends up straight to the camp authorities. When Dunbar is threatened with execution for sabotage, the search for the informer turns into a fight to the death.
Captured Americans coping with life in a German POW camp in World War II are puzzled by the simplicity with which the Germans are able to stave off escape attempts, shooting those who try. Sefton () is a POW who has profitably wagered with his fellow American prisoners that these escapes would fail.
The POWs fear there may be an informer in their midst, but who is it? As it becomes clearer and clearer to his fellow inmates that Sefton has considerable contact with his German captors, his fellow POWs mistakenly conclude that he is the informer and they turn on him, including physically beating him and helping themselves to some of his belongings.
Sefton understands in full that to clear his name, he must determine the identity of the real informer, and he is, eventually, able to work out that Price (), whose English is impeccable, is a German informant masquerading as an American POW. Written messages, Sefton discovers, are being smuggled by Price to the Germans through a hollow chess piece on the chessboard in the barracks, with phony air raid drills staged to enable the Germans to retrieve these messages undetected.
Now realizing that Price has figured prominently in the death of the Americans that have attempted escape, Sefton plots revenge, and, after exposing Price's true identity to his fellow POWs, he maneuvers to force Price to make an unauthorized exit from the barracks. To the guards manning the tower, Price's exit looks like an American escape attempt, and they shoot him, much to the dismay of Stalag Commandant Von Scherbach ().
The diversion created by the shooting incident gives Sefton a chance to escape, and he takes with him a brave lieutenant () who has recently been captured. Because of the measures of success against the Germans he had gained prior to his capture, the lieutenant is a marked man, but he and Sefton are successful in their escape attempt.
The elimination of the German informer and the first successful escape by American POWs lift the spirits of the other POWs.
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A few days before Christmas, 1944, at the German prisoner-of-war camp, Stalag 17, two American POWs, Manfredi and Johnson, inmates of Barracks 4, are preparing an escape. The story's narrator, Cookie, one of the prisoners, suggests that there may be a traitor among the men of Barracks 4.
The men have secretly been digging a tunnel from their latrine to a point just beyond the barbed-wire fence that marks the perimeter of the camp. After going over their plan to sneak into Switzerland, Manfredi and Johnson get out of the barracks through a trap door hidden under the wood-burning stove and sneak into the latrine. They crawl through the tunnel and begin digging to the surface beyond the barbed wire fence.
Inside the barracks, the men speculate as to how long it will take their comrades to emerge beyond the fence. They begin to predict that the escapees will make it all the way when one of them, a shrewd man named Sefton, wagers two packs of cigarettes that the men won't even make it out of the nearby forest. The other men, most of whom dislike Sefton, wager against him.
Outside, Manfredi and Johnson dig to the surface and are about leave when they are spotted by a small German squad outside the fence, who open fire, killing them both. Inside the barracks, the remaining prisoners, including Sefton, are disheartened, knowing their buddies could not possibly have escaped. The hot-headed Duke demands an explanation from the barracks' security officer, Price. Price says he doesn't have an answer. Meanwhile, Sefton and Cookie quietly gather up the cigarettes that Sefton has won in the bet and store them in a footlocker Sefton keeps under his bed.
The next morning the entire camp is awakened for roll call. Barracks 4 is overseen by Sergeant Schultz, a jolly man whom the men have absolutely no trust for. In the camp's muster grounds, the men are addressed by the camp commandant, Oberst von Scherbach. Scherbach tells the men that his guards successfully prevented the escape from the night before and that no man has ever escaped from his camp alive. He also has the corpses of Manfredi and Johnson lying in the mud and uncovered for all the men to see. The Barracks 4 chief, Hoffy, protests the treatment of the bodies and demands they have a proper burial. Von Scherbach agrees to do so. Von Scherbach goes on, saying that being caught outside the barracks after lights out means summary execution. Also, the stove in Barracks 4 will be removed so it cannot be used to camouflage the trap door the men cut in the floor and the men will also dig up the tunnel they dug and fill it in.
Von Scherbach also announces that each barracks will be given a small Christmas tree and that all the prisoners will go through delousing. One of the prisoners, the shellshocked Joey, begins to play his ocarina, which is gently taken away by another prisoner, Stanislaus "Animal" Kazawa (Animal makes Joey another one later as a Christmas present). While the commandant talks and uses a mocking tone, Animal slyly throws the ocarina at the water in front of the commandant, splashing his highly polished boots with mud. The Commandant demands the guilty man step forward. Animal does and is followed moments later by several other men. Eventually, the entire prisoner population steps forward, covering for Animal. The Commandant, temporarily flustered, cancels the Christmas trees and tells the men they'll be deloused with cold water from the camp's fire hoses. The men are dismissed.
After the men have the opportunity to clean up in their latrines, and following a small incident where Animal is nearly shot for crossing the barbed-wire of the camp while lusting after Russian female prisoners, the men go back to their barracks for breakfast. Sefton fries himself an egg in front of the other prisoners and when questioned about how he paid for it, he tells them that he bartered for it using the cigarettes he'd won the night before. The other men are quite angry that Sefton would use cigarettes he'd gotten as a result of the deaths of their comrades, however, Sefton counters, saying that many other prisoners trade with the Germans and that life in the camp is such that thievery is common. One of the other prisoners, the short-tempered Duke, tells Sefton that collusion with the Germans could get him hurt or killed and small fight breaks out. Hoffy promptly breaks it up and Sefton, claiming he has indigestion, gives the fried egg to Joey. Price, the barracks security officer, asks Sefton how he could be so sure that Manfredi and Johnson wouldn't make it to freedom. Sefton says he didn't know for sure but he "liked the odds" of the situation. Sefton also angrily tells his comrades that they're wasting their time and risking their lives unnecessarily by trying to escape. Sefton plans to ride out the war as a prisoner and stay alive.
The barracks of the camp share a ham radio that they keep hidden and use to listen to the BBC and other communications about the war. The radio is smuggled throughout the compound by Marko and his partner, Steve, who is on crutches having lost a leg in combat. They use his empty pantleg to hide various items, including the radio. When the radio is brought to Hoffy and Barracks 4, Marko tells them they can have it only for two days instead of a week; the traitor in their barracks is known to the rest of the camp and the other barracks chiefs fear the radio will be discovered. The men set up the radio immediately, using a few yards of chicken wire as the antenna, which doubles as their volleyball net. One of the prisoners, Blondie, is a radio expert and begins to report about military actions in Europe; the news he picks up is about the famous Battle of the Bulge. Just then, Schultz arrives to seize the barracks stove and the radio is cleverly hidden in a pail of water. Hoffy and Duke try to grill Schultz about the barracks spy but Schultz refuses to tell them anything. Schultz also notices that a signal from the spy has been left for him; a loop has been tied in the cord for one of the bare light bulbs hanging from the rafters. After he barks orders for the men to report outside to fill in the escape tunnel, he goes to the chess board and takes the black queen. Pulling off the crown, he sees a small note rolled up and hidden inside. He exchanges the queen for an identical piece, pulls the loop out of the cord and walks out.
While the men uncover the escape tunnel they dug, they notice a horse-drawn cart going by with the coffins of Manfredi and Johnson. The men all remove their hats in respect. Cookie narrates for a while about Sefton himself who, despite the poor conditions of the camp, has built a substantial entrepreneurship for himself based mostly on the trading of cigarettes. Sefton has several successful businesses at his disposal including distilling schnapps from potato peels, horse races (he uses mice that run around a small track), and a telescope that the men use to peek into the delousing shack in the Russian compound where female prisoners are disinfected. Hoffy, Price and Duke are not pleased with Sefton's ventures, fearing that the Germans will find out and punish them more harshly than ever. During a session where Sefton has the telescope set up, Harry Shapiro and Animal try to sneak into the Russian prisoners camp to look inside the windows of the delousing shack, using a pot of white paint to mark a line down the center of the road. They're caught immediately by a German guard and escape when they slap him in the eyes with the brush, making it back to their camp successfully as their comrades cheer.
A new prisoner arrives; Lieutenant James Dunbar, who is being housed at 17 until the Germans ship him to the officers camp. Dunbar is greeted warmheartedly and comically by the rest of the barracks. However, there is instant friction between him and Sefton. Sefton, from the same suburb of Boston, tells everyone that Dunbar is from a wealthy family and should be pampered during his stay. Dunbar lets the first few comments go but tells Sefton that he can resent his family's wealth but he should tread cautiously. Sefton tells Dunbar that his family fortune won't protect him in the camp. Sefton leaves the barracks, to an unknown destination.
The rest of the men ask Dunbar about how he was captured & brought to the camp. He was shot down on a bombardment mission and had been on his feet for three days without any sleep. He'd have been brought to Stalag 17 earlier but there was a major delay coming out of Frankfurt: a German munitions train was destroyed just outside the city and snarled much of the Reichsbahn transport for miles around. The sergeant that accompanied Dunbar, Bagradian, tells everyone that it was Dunbar himself that blew up the train. Dunbar is modest about the incident but tells everyone that he'd rigged a simple time bomb and tossed it aboard the train as it was leaving the station.
Schultz shows up unexpectedly, telling the men they'll be getting new blankets. A visit from a representative of the Geneva Conventions is due to show up in a few days & the Commandant wants to give the appearance that the camp is complying with regulations. Hoffy scoffs and says that they know the blankets will be confiscated after the Geneva agent leaves. Schultz also confiscates the radio, playing coy for a bit before revealing it's hiding place in the bucket. He also sees that a new message has been left for him by the spy. He orders the men outside to get their blankets and retrieves the hidden message.
After the men file back into the barracks they turn on Cookie, demanding to know where Sefton has been for the past few hours. With Hoffy's permission, Animal breaks into Sefton's footlocker & discovers a wealth of contraband that Sefton has been hoarding, including a cuckoo clock and silk stockings. Duke appears and tells them that he knows where Sefton disappeared to: he's been over at the Russian women's barracks partying with them. In a fury, Hoffy smashes Sefton's prized telescope.
When Sefton returns, he finds the men staring angrily at him and that his footlockers have been broken into. Hoffy and the rest of the men suggest that he's the German spy they've been unable to identify. Sefton claims he's innocent and that the men should hold a kangaroo court. The Commandant suddenly makes an appearance and arrests Dunbar for suspicion of sabotaging the train that was destroyed near Frankfurt. Dunbar is taken into custody and the men become angrier with Sefton, immediately suspecting him. They turn on him and he is brutally beaten.
The next morning, on Christmas Eve, the men are rousted out by Schultz to receive Red Cross parcels, brought by the Geneva agent. A mistaken shipment leaves the men with a large supply of ping-pong balls. Sefton is nearly unable to get out of bed and Schultz notices that he's been severely beaten. Sefton tries to bribe Schultz into revealing the identity of the traitor but is rebuffed. When the other prisoners walk in on them, their belief in Sefton as the traitor is reinforced. Hoffy tells Sefton that he tried to get Sefton transferred to another barracks but couldn't. Sefton tells everyone that he'll find out who the traitor is. Schultz walks in with the Geneva agent, who inspects the barracks and sees through the ruse of beautifying the camp: the blankets smell of moth balls & the meat promised in the men's meal is missing. When he asks Price and Harry about the conditions they live in, they both give non-committal answers but refuse to speak up about problems. When he questions Sefton about his obvious injuries, Sefton refuses to rat out his fellow prisoners. Hoffy takes the opportunity to tell the agent about Dunbar being taken to the Commandant's quarters without formal charges and the agent promises to investigate.
At the Commandant's apartment, Dunbar is being forced to stand upright in an attempt to make him confess. Dunbar has held out but is rapidly becoming weaker with the lack of sleep he had while being taken to the camp. After talking a bit about how he became a prison camp warden, he places a call to his superior to let him know he has caught the saboteur responsible for the Frankfort train explosion. When the Geneva agent arrives, he asks about Lt Dunbar. The agent tells Von Scherbach that he cannot torture Dunbar in this manner without proof. The Commandant agrees and says he'll find out about the time bomb Dunbar allegedly used.
Later in the day, the men celebrate with a small tree they decorate with their dog tags, smuggled to them by Marko and Steve. The men have traded Sefton's distillery equipment for the camp's phonograph and begin to sing "When Johnny Comes Marching Home". Price steals away from the group and sees that the cord for the light used to flag a message has been looped. Revealing himself as the traitor, he's able to switch the black queen for a new one. When the marching line of his barracksmates catches up to him, he enthusiastically joins them. Sefton, still recovering in his bed, notices that the loop in the cord is gone.
Later, while playing horseshoes with Bagradian, Price asks him how the Lieutenant could have carried any explosive device with him through the German prisoner searches in the train station. Bagradian tells him Dunbar simply folded a lit cigarette into a book of matches. When the cigarette burned down it lit the matches, causing a fire that detonated the ammunition.
That night the men gather around the tree and sing "O, Come All Ye Faithful". Sefton notices that the loop in the cord has reappeared. The solemnity of the evening is ruined when the camp lights go out & Schultz tells them all to evacuate and take refuge in the trenches used in case of bombings. Schultz waits until everyone leaves and begins talking in German to Price, who'd lingered behind to make sure the barrack was empty. He shows Schultz how Dunbar sabotaged the train using the method Bagradian told him about. After they leave, Sefton steps out from a hiding spot, having heard the whole conversation.
On Christmas Day the men throw a party in their barracks with music and much of the liquor and wine that Sefton had been hoarding. Sefton talks to a suspicious Cookie about the traitor in their midst. Sefton talks about the potential consequences of revealing the traitor to the others & what punishment they'd face if they killed the man outright. Sefton suggests that a well-constructed plan to rid themselves of the traitor and appear blameless is needed. Cookie suggests that Sefton tell Hoffy or Price. Sefton takes the suggestion to heart.
Hoffy shows up and announces that the SS has arrived to take Dunbar into custody -- his method for destroying the ammo train has been uncovered. Hoffy tells the men that they've come up with a plan to rescue Dunbar from the SS. All the men from the other barracks will disperse outside and help with a diversion. Sefton seizes the opportunity to demand that he stay in the barracks & be guarded by someone they trust -- Sefton suggests Price.
Outside, the men have Steve drop a smudge pot crafted from ground ping-pong balls from his empty pantleg onto the mud near the SS agents car. When the cover from it is thick enough, also making it impossible for the tower guards to open fire, a small group of the men rush the SS guards and grab Dunbar, hiding him. The commandant is furious and runs checks of every man against their records. The barracks are thoroughly searched and the prisoners are forced to stand in the appelplatz for six straight hours, however Dunbar is never found. It is later revealed that Dunbar is hiding out in one of the water towers above one of the latrines.
That night Hoffy calls a meeting where they'll collect everyone's dog tags, with the notable exception of Joey and Sefton, and draw the name of the man who will get Dunbar out of the water tower and out of the camp through the barbed wire. When the name is drawn, Price takes the tag and says he'll go. He figures that his work as barracks security chief has been less than adequate and he'd like to make it up to the men. Another trap door is cut in the floor and as he prepares to leave, Sefton steps forward and announces another wager that Dunbar will never make it out of the camp. The men are instantly furious with him but he slowly begins to reveal Price as the traitor: he approaches Price and asks him where he was when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Price slips up, saying he was having dinner at six in the evening, but in Germany, when America was getting the news earlier in the day. Sefton tells everyone that Price had sworn loyalty to his family's homeland and had gone back to Germany when the war broke out, he'd been trained as spy and was planted in the camp. Price tries to escape through the trap door but is easily caught and subdued. Sefton then tells everyone that he'll be the man to get Dunbar out -- he likes the odds because now they can use Price as a decoy. Considering that he'd sent Johnson and Manfredi out to their deaths when they tried to escape, Hoffy and the other prisoners are eager for payback. They'll throw him out the door with cans tied to his leg and he'll draw the searchlights and gunfire from the Germans in the guard towers.
Sefton slips down through the trapdoor, bidding everyone a sardonic farewell and sneaks over to the latrine. He gets a freezing Dunbar down from the water tank and waits for the signal from his comrades. When Price is thrown out into the appelplatz he draws fire from all the towers, despite his cries for help in German. As he desperately tries to approach the commandant's offices, he's gunned down. At the edge of the camp, Sefton cuts through the wire fence and he and Dunbar escape into the woods. In the appelplatz, the commandant and Schultz first smile at the corpse lying the mud but are quickly chagrined to find that it's not Dunbar, but Price. In the barracks, the men reflect on how well Sefton's plan worked. The Animal suggests that Sefton merely wanted to steal their wirecutters. Cookie happily begins whistling the theme of the Army Air Force.
